Warner Bros. has filed yet another DMCA take down notice with Google and other search engines. This time the studio is looking to take down the subreddit forum BestOfStreamingVideo. This particular subreddit does not post actual pirated content, but instead posts links to the content. Those links lead to websites where you can actually stream the content rather than downloading it. Warner Bros. and other studios have been working hard to curb online piracy in the form of torrenting. It was just recently that torrent site KickAssTorrents was hit when the owner of the site was arrested. KickAssTorrents domain names and websites were seized but were resurrected through a series of VPN, cloud and proxy services.
Now, instead of downloading pirated content locally, those who are seeking such material are streaming it instead. The practice is becoming more popular and whole online communities are popping up that will assist those seeking pirated streaming content. Reddit is a place that is known for its community and helping others find what they want and need and the subreddit BestOfStreamingVideo provides that. Warner Bros. takes issue with the linked content the forum is sharing and they list that content in their DMCA take down notice. Usually DMCA take downs are sent to the offending website but in this case, Warner Bros. sent the take down to Google.
Warner Bros. requested Google remove BestOfStreamingVideo from its search results but Google did not comply with the request. Torrent Freak speculates that the reason Google did not honor the request was too broad in scope and did not list the main Reddit URL. Another possibility is that there is no actual pirated content on this subreddit but only links to that content and the moderators have no control of who posts a link or what links are shared.
“The sub was made as a way for our users to share streaming video, and as Reddit is a platform for free speech it is out of our control as to what our users post,” xosfear tells us.
“In my opinion, if Warner Brothers spent all the time and money they spent on trying to control piracy on building a centralized platform for users to own their own movie library for a cost-effective price, they would make millions,” xosfear says.
“Look at what Steam has done for Valve and video game piracy. Of course, that would mean co-operating with other movie studios, and I doubt they would put aside their greed to do that.”
Warner Bros. and the other entertainment giants will have their hands full battling online piracy. While they swat down one offender another pops up to take its place. Perhaps the quote above from xosfear makes sense. The entertainment industry may have to rethink ownership of movie libraries.
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[button link=”https://torrentfreak.com/warner-bros-targets-popular-streaming-subreddit-160730/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: TorrentFreak[/button]Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
